Analysis of patient attitudes to basic medical services in community health service institutions / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo collect and analyze patients' evaluation of basic medical services in Tianjin community health service institutions and to suggest improvements.MethodsA total of 15 community health service centers and 15 community health service stations in six urban districts of Tianjin were selected by stratified sampling and 300 randomly intercepted patients were surveyed by questionnaire.ResultsApproximately half ( 157/300, 52. 3％ ) the patients selected community health service institution as their first choice to seek medical attention. The most important reason for this, with 89.2％ patients responding yes, was that the community health service institution was close to home and very convenient.One quarter (79/300, 25.3％ ) of the patients regularly consulted the same doctor and 17.7％ (53/300)seldom went to see a doctor. The proportion of patients expressing a high degree of satisfaction to service standards and health professionals was 78. 7％, of which satisfaction with physicians' explanation about the patients' illness ranked highest at 83. 7％ (251/300). Patients' confidence level of doctors' diagnosis,physical examination, and auxiliary examination was 92. 0％. Moreover, most (87. 0％ ) patients reported that doctors communicate well with them; 85.0％ (255/300) patients received health instruction from doctors during visits, and 82. 0％ patients reported that doctors pay attention to protecting patients' privacy.The overall satisfaction of patients to environmental facilities and process management of community health service institutions was 73.6％. On the other hand, patient satisfaction with medicine types, service price,instrumentation and equipment, and environment were all lower than the average satisfaction. Conclusions Patients were basically satisfied with medical service in community health service institutions. Three main problem areas were identified patients' use of community health services is deficient, medical service ability is partially lacking, and the service feature of general practitioners (GPs) is not obvious. Improvements of basic medical service ability in the community, cultivation of GPs, and basic medicine regulation are advocated.